


The times they are a Changeling...

by orphan_account



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV), The Vampire Diaries - L. J. Smith
Genre: Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Gen, Humor, Mild Smut, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Original Species, Other, Sexual Humor, Smut, Supernatural Elements, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-09-19 03:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9416393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: For years they tried to run from them. But even with body and blood far from their grasp, thoughts and feelings were much harder to escape. They moved from town to town, always slipping up, always noticed. Even with each other, they felt alone in the world. Because they were rare. They were Changelings.And this is their story…





	1. Barn Bawl

The land was a canvas, verdant green. The finger of Midas was the paintbrush that brought great sweeps of gold wheat across the fields. Large and looming over this amber hue was a russet barn.

 

A teenage girl was sat inside, up on the hay loft where the sweet smell of dried grass tickled her nostrils, and the loose hay littered the tight black coils of her short hair. Normally, she would be bumping her head on the rafters overhead for climbing up on the hay bales. They were all randomly stacked up in a way that reminded her of some big city skyline that was miles away from the current rural view. But today she didn't feel like climbing. Today her legs were drawn into her chest, her head buried in her lap as she quietly sobbed to herself. It was a small, self-pitying sort of cry, one a child might do if they'd just been told they're not going to Disney World for the summer, even after they'd _begged_ and _begged_ their mummy and daddy. But this girl was technically a grown woman- well, legally speaking- and she was not crying about being denied a life-fulfilling childhood memory. No, she was crying because of the blood that stained her clothes, the blood that had dried and crusted around her mouth and nails. The blood that was not her own.

 

"The dog was 15, Fawn. It wasn't gonna last long with, or without, your assistance." A soft voice drawled, calling out from the doorhole.

 

"Piss off." Was Fawn's passive retort, knowing before she even opened her mouth the voice wouldn't listen. They were just empty words to avoid what Fawn didn't want to say- which was, admit this voice was right. The owner of this voice, in turn, let out a weary sigh, meandering out from the door hole and further into the barn.

 

 **"Can we stop with this snivelling like a 2-year old act, I've waited a whole hour for you  to finish 'letting it all out' and it's getting old now, if I'm being honest."**  She mumbled. Fawn flinched slightly as the girl's words echoed across the empty barn, before hastily wiping away her tears and moving to peek down over the edge of the loft floor. A bitter scowl was across Fawn's tear-stained cheeks.

 

"Come on, Flo, I'm already gonna be subjected to over eight hours of your condescending little comments on the flight, the least you do is leave me in peace until we go to the airport- is that too much to ask for!?" Fawn complained. Flo, meanwhile, sauntered around the barn, her beady eyes scanning the floor. Her slender finger then came up to idly wrap itself around a clump of her auburn hair. Flo appreciated how silky it felt. Even with Fawn's wellbeing _originally_ on her mind, Flo's narcissistic thoughts couldn't help but briefly change to remembering the name of the new conditioner she'd used.

 

Fawn watched her friend with narrowed eyes for all of 30 seconds before finally asking her what she was doing, an impatient sigh escaping her. Flo paused, seemingly finding what she'd been looking for. Flo then nudged the motionless canine body Fawn had poorly tried to cover with loose hay with the tip of her boot.

 

"Just making sure you didn't storm into the house and try to get Farmer Greggory and his sleeping wife as well." She alluded. "We'd need to do a bit more than your crappy haypile plan to cover THAT mess up- hey, you know, maybe next time you're looking for where to hide your latest kill, why don't you just try shoving it up your big, tantruming ass, eh? No one will find it there!" Sarcasm coated her sentence like syrup on pancakes, thick and overpowering.

 

Fawn groaned with disgust at Flo's colourful suggestion, before retreating into the depths of the loft with a whispered 'You're so freaking gross, dude'.

 

Flo let out a humourless chuckle, before walking over to the unsecured and rickety ladder leading up to the loft. She was going to deal with Fawn head on- she _needed_ to, if she was going to get anywhere. Carefully climbing up the frail wooden rungs to join Fawn, Flo pondered the best way to approach asking about the full events of yesterday. Flo knew she couldn't just be her usual self, tactless and unfiltered, when it came to such a sensitive topic. Fawn only threw a tantrum severe enough for her to kill something, human or not, if it was connected to their _Ex_ -masters.

 

Flo knelt down next to Fawn. Fawn was lying down and curled up into a ball, her back to Flora. Silence. The sound of a fly obnoxiously buzzing made its debut, dancing across the air between them, unbeknownst to the tension residing there. More silence. Flo coughed into her sleeve, the dust in the stuffy barn affecting her throat worse than the unspoken lodged words there did.

 

After quite some time, the silence was too much to bare and Flo blurted out her thoughts, Fawn clearly not in the mood to make the first move. "Look here, we've dealt with god knows how many years of this cat and mouse chase with those bastards- I know what you can be like when they find us, Fawn. I know it's only been a couple months since the last time they caught up to us, but I also know you've been handling their sudden appearances so well recently and, well...what changed?"

 

"America, huh?" Fawn eventually questioned, the word spoken as if some distasteful joke. She'd entirely avoided Flo's question. Flo's already thin lips flattened into a grim line, her lips disappearing almost entirely. _Not this again._

 

"They've found us _again_...there's only so many places we can go before the UK just seems too small." Flo remarked, absently drawing patterns with the thick layer of dust on the floorboards. "But come off it, I don't believe for one second that's the biggest thing on your mind- they came into the house last night, I _know_ they said something to you that was different than usual, Fawn, stop pussyfooting around the issue!" Flo's volume was beginning to escalate. Her hands clenched into fists before she began to squish her new dust doodles with unrestrained frustration. "...I can't just sit here while I wait for you to grow a pair and _tell me_! They've always had a stronger hold on you than me, you _know_ that! I'm surprised I didn't wake up to a path of human entrails leading out of the barn, not some mutt you half-heartedly covered, and, and…" Flo halted, her breath coming out in shallow rasps. She'd been shouting. She hesitantly unclenched her fists, dousing the spiteful flame in her eyes with a nice, cool glass of dispassion. "-and I just think it'll be too much, for the both of us, if they get another chance- as convenient as last night- to try and get that hold over us again. I don't wanna take any chances." This time, her voice had been detached of emotion. Flo looked over at Fawn's back, expecting some sort of reply; a word, a sound, a twitch- just something, _anything_ to know she was even listening to Flo would've been much appreciated.

 

But once again, Flo was in for another long pause.

 

Flo did notice, however, the way Fawn's shoulders shook, tears no doubt silently escaping her. Flo, after some debate, reached out to comfort the crying girl. Flo moved to gently touch Fauna's shoulder, but was hesitant in her execution. Hands trembling, Flo stubbornly biting the inside of her cheek to get herself to follow through with the gesture until the copper taste of blood spilt onto her tongue. After hovering over her shoulder for far too long to be called mere indecisiveness, she cursed internally and begrudgingly withdrew her hand back to her lap, sucking her teeth in annoyance.

 

"You suck at comforting people, you know that, bro?" Fawn murmured, the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Flo glanced at her, rolling her eyes but letting out a similarly small smile. Fawn sat up, turning to meet Flo's gaze. All Flo saw reflected back in the girl's glistening eyes was fear- but whether it fear of _what_ they'd said to her, or fear to _tell_ Flo, Flo couldn't be sure. "He told me I'd never escape him," Fawn quietly revealed, wrapping her arms around her body as if to protect herself from her own words. Flo nodded, biting back the urge to make a sarcastic retort. She knew it would stop Fawn telling her the full story. "Not like we're doing now, not _literally_ escaping them…It was more like, even if I'm thousands of miles away from him, I'll still be nothing but his precious little changeling, you know? Like, that feeling I feel now, without him, will never go away...Flo, what if all I am right now is lost property, waiting to be found and returned?"

 

Flo's gaze hardened, opening her mouth to counter what the man had said. But unable to think of the right insult for the situation, Flo could only let out a colourful string of curses. She tore her gaze away from Fawn, slamming a fist into the floorboards. Fawn's body began to tremble as it went right through the old floor, a small crater now surrounding the splintered wood. Flo glanced in alarm at what she'd done. Pulling her hand back out, she shrugged with a nonchalant air. To Flo, it was the _floor's_ fault it broke, not her actions.

 

Fawn's high voice escalated even further, becoming hysterical. "See? All you can ever do is swear, or insult them, or even let out a sarcastic remark or two- but all of that is just a bunch of crap to distract us from the reality of their words! Maybe he's right, maybe he _tainted_ me somehow? Marked me in a way I can never come back from? Maybe my master's just-"

 

Fawn was cut off as Flo sharply turned to slap Fawn clean across the face. Everything seemed to stop for a moment after, the world halting to a stand still. Then, the blood rushed to the surface of Fawn's left cheek and the world began to turn once more. Fawn began to bawl, harder than when she was crying over the dog, shakily touching her crimson cheek. It wasn't a hard slap at all, something that Flo considered a light tap at best. Fawn was crying because of  _why_ Flo had raised a hand to her, and less so from the sting of her cheek.

 

Flo glared back at her with an eerily empty gaze, breaths heavy as if she'd just ran a marathon.

 

"What have I told you? We never, ever, ever, _ever_ ** _,_** call those bloodsucking asshole's our masters again. I don't give a flying fuck what he said, we no longer belong to them and it's gonna stay that way- _**do you understand** **?**_ " Flo bluntly stated, a stern edge to her tone. Fawn launched herself at her, crying out 'YES, YES!' in a hiccuping, cracked voice. Flo stiffened at the contact, but decided that she would hug her back- just this one time, since the poor thing was so upset and all. They embraced tightly for a long time, Flora rubbing Fauna's back with a hand resembling a dying fish flopping about on the floor of a fishing boat. Even when she tried, comforting people was not one of Flo's few talents. When Fawn had calmed down, and the tear streaks had faded from her face, Flo spoke again. "Listen here, kid: We're moving to some small no-name town in America and we're going to be some stereotypical teenage girls living the american dream- just like you see on that american shit you always watch. And, hey, even if we have our new house burned down by witches, we adopt a werewolf as a pet and our next-door neighbour is a friendly vampire who always comes around to borrow a cup of O negative...we'll deal with that knowing we still would never, EVER, have to go back to submitting to the Masters of our pas-."

 

Fawn began to laugh, a small snicker at first, before it escalated into a full grown roar of amusement. She ended up cutting through Flo's sombre speech, much to the girl's annoyance.

 

"Come on, Fawn, what is it now? Have you finally cracked? Do I need to send you to the loony bin instead of the states?" Flo complained, shoving Fawn off her in annoyance.

 

Trying (and failing) to stop her giggles to try to speak, Fawn eventually got out what she wanted to say- inbetween great bouts of laughter, anyway. "No, no, I'm fine, honest! I...I, I just thought that...that, if, if...we do get a werewolf for a pet... _I_ won't be the one to clean up the massive shits he does in the garden!"

 

Flo rolled her eyes, calling her an idiot, the tiniest smile creeping up on her own face. But while Flo hid her amused expression with a flick of her long hair, she couldn't hide the warm feeling that bubbled up in her chest at hearing Fawn's ugly, hysterical laughter.


	2. Mobile Home Madness

The flight from Britain to America was over 8 hours and wrought with complications: sitting in cramped middle seats surrounded by screaming toddlers, travel-sick Flo queasy enough to puke her guts out every 30 minutes, and so much turbulence Fawn felt like she was on an endless, rickety journey to hell via a shoddy roller-coaster only witnessed in the sketchiest of funfairs. Suffice to say, neither girls enjoyed their trip.

 

When at last they'd reached central Virginia, it was in the early hours of the morning. The sky was like a half-stirred blend of honey and marmalade, the few wispy clouds dotted around acting as the froth to the mixture. Both girls were so sleep-deprived that their new home was only seen through drooping lids, but even with blurred vision, it was clear what type of house they'd need to get accustomed to…

 

"Jesus Christ, what pile of crap is this? This is gonna be hell to live in…" Flo grumbled, taking out the last of the suitcases and slamming the car boot door with enough strength to shake the entire vehicle. The taxi driver turned in his seat to flash a stern glare at her, then slammed on the gas pedal before Fawn had even finished sleepily stumbling out of her own seat.

 

Fawn yawned loudly, before shaking her head dismissively at Flo. "Eh, come on dude, it can't be _that_ bad. At least living in some small no-name town let us afford something other than some cramped, overpriced piece of trash apartme- no, not even apartment, _room_ \- up in the big city…" but Fawn's optimistic tone soon drifted into silence when she paused to stare at their new home herself.

 

"Oh god, no, no, no, we're stayin' in a _caravan_?" Fawn whined, throwing herself at Flo. Fawn clung to her while mockingly weeping. "Do you remember the last time we had to live in a caravan? Up in that park near that snobby academy where those entitled high school pricks would throw eggs at our house every day on the way home and - oh, Flo, this is gonna be just like in England when everyone called us dirty gypsies…except they're gonna call us t _railer trash_ here, right? That's what they say in America instea-"

 

Flo groaned with annoyance, sharply elbowing Fawn away from her. Fawn pouted, staring at Flo with the large, child-like eyes of a kicked puppy. "-For god's sake, Fawn, calm down! It's not like _I_ wanted to stay in this shithole either, but after having to pay out for those high-quality forges just so we could even get into the country, and not to mention paying for those flights…well, what did you expect? We're broke!"

 

Flo then threw Fawn's suitcase at her and turned to wheel her own towards the caravan. Fawn stared at the ground sulkily as she dragged her feet- and her suitcase- wordlessly behind Flo. Flo resisted the urge to turn around and smack the sour expression from her face. Flo detested dealing with her drama queen moments on a good day- and right now she was running on over 24 hours of no sleep. They walked through their 'garden' to get to the front door, which was really nothing more than a few metres of patchy grass and dead earth.

 

Up close the caravan looked even worse. It was old, ancient even, the white paint on the steel walls chipped and worn from a harsh mix of age and weather. The piece of junk stuck out like a sore thumb. The front side of it faced out onto the grey asphalt of a forgotten side road leading into the nearest town, while a thick wall of towering brown bark stood sentry beside it. The dense canopy of verdant green atop the trunks was what dutifully forbid even a smidge of sunlight from shining on the pitiful place. But the girls quickly found they appreciated the constant cover of darkness. The shadows helped hide the scuffs and dents of its battered exterior- well, helped as much as they could.

 

Once inside, the girls realised with a groan just how cramped the space was. They teetered around the wooden table bolted to the floor near the left-hand side of the mobile home, dragging their suitcases off the cheap, mustard carpet to place them on it. Fawn pulled a face at the choice of carpet colour, shaking her head in horror as her eyes glanced over the L-shaped polyester couch wrapped around the table. It had a lime green and gold floral pattern that made Fauna's skin crawl.

 

"Oh man, I've been looking at it 10 seconds and I already want to rinse my eyes out with bleach…" Fawn mumbled with disgust, sticking out her tongue. "And oh god, what's that weird white stain all over the cushion seats? It's on the carpet under the table too! It looks like seme-"

 

"-Finish that sentence and I swear to god I will break your neck." Flo threatened, taking out two sets of bed sheets. One set was plain white with a black border, while the other had giant rainbow unicorns fighting kittens that shot lasers from their eyes. It was painfully clear whose bed sheets were whose. She started to make the bunk beds that were secured to the wall opposite the couch, the only few pine drawers located in the caravan part of the bed frame. "To be honest, I'm pretty sure the previous tenants made drugs in here so…just don't sniff the strange white stains and you should be fine and dandy."

 

Fawn laughed when she saw what Flo was doing. "Woah, how many years has it been since we had to share a bunk bed together?" Her voice dripped with nostalgia, chocolate eyes glazing over as their childhood raced past them like a movie stuck on fast-forward.

 

" _Humph_ , a long-ass time. I wish it had stayed that way, too. A queen, like me, deserves a queen- _sized_ bed." Flo grumbled, quickly changing into a pair of silk PJs she'd taken out. "Now get some sleep while you can, because tomorrow we're unpacking, disinfecting this disgusting place top to bottom, then going shopping for some much-needed food. We have to get it all done tomorrow because the day after is the first school day of the year and we can't miss it. We're already gonna be the foreign new kids in some small town where everyone already knows everyone, I'm not about to make our school lives any more awkward than they already will be."

 

"Come on now, you know I can't clean- cleaning products make me woozy!" Fawn teased, going through the only door in the mobile home to the miniscule bathroom. She shrieked. "OH MY GOD, BRO, SOMEONE LEFT A HUGE SHIT IN THE SINK!"

 

"Hmm, yeah, well clearly it's just a nice 'welcome to your new home' gift from the previous tenants, nothing to get worked up over..." Flora replied with a sarcastic, but sleepy, mumble. She then got under her quilt and rolled onto her side. Flo flinched as the bed springs squeaked loudly in protest to the jostling of her hefty weight. They were in for some noisy nights.

 

After crudely cleaning up the 'gift' with some toilet paper she'd found lying around, Fawn finally hopped up to the top bunk. She flopped her head onto the pillow, still in the clothes she'd travelled in, and made no attempt to get under the covers. She kicked her boots off over the edge of the bed, making them fall to the floor with loud thuds. Flo yelled out in protest to the noise, sharply kicking the bottom of Fawn's mattress. The action made Fawn sit up in surprise, only to find the roof was so low, she hit her head instantly. Fawn cried out, falling back with a roar of pain. Flo let out a quiet snort of amusement, Fawn's boisterous laughter soon joining in. Fawn was always the one happy to laugh at herself. Once they'd lapsed back into silence, Flo had barely closed her eyes only for Fawn's voice to pipe up again. Flo sighed, clicking her tongue with annoyance.

 

"Hey, dude, what do you think American school's gonna be like?" Fawn said, leaning over the bed frame to look down and see a dark lump she presumed was Flo.

 

"I don't know, you'll see for yourself in a few days- so _go to sleep_!" Flo demanded, pulling her faded old quilt over her head.

 

Fawn stayed in silence for all of 2 minutes. "…But like, do you think there's gonna be cheerleaders and jocks and stuff? They always have them in the TV shows and I'm pretty good at acrobatic tricks so maybe I cou-"

 

"-For god's sake, Fawn, you're too fucking stupid to be even a dumb cheerleader. You can't even remember your name half the time, how are you gonna remember a whole routine? And your ugly ass ain't dating a jock either, so you best just accept your position as the school loner, because I sure don't wanna hang out with your ass in public!" Flo snapped, adding her pillow as another object to cover her ears.

 

Fawn flinched, remembering how grouchy Flo could get when she was tired. "Oh, okay." She mutely turned over and stared at the wall, miserable. Fawn knew she'd just said that because Flo was tired, but it still stung to _hear_.

 

* * *

 

Flo woke up the next morning to make a start on the cleaning. She grabbed onto Fawn, ready to violently shake her awake, but upon seeing a few semi-dried tear streaks down Fawn's freckled cheeks, froze instead. Remembering what she'd spat out the night before, Flo's grip loosened _. Damn it_. She grit her teeth, grabbing onto the quilt sheet and gently moving it over Fawn's exposed shoulders instead.

 

"Fine, you can evade cleaning duty this _one_ time…" Flo wasn't completely heartless, you know?

 

Fawn was not a light sleeper. She didn't wake all the way through Flo's heavy-handed cleaning and unpacking. Nor did she wake from Flo slamming the door when leaving to go shopping, or even when she returned to loudly shuffle around the latest groceries so they would fit in the single food draw and mini-fridge. It had been what Flo felt was the most frustrating game of live-action _Tetris_ she'd ever attempted. Overall, it had been a productive day for _one_ of them. But the problem with letting Fawn sleep for the full day meant that when she eventually awoke, it was already the morning of their first day of school…

 

* * *

 

When Fawn woke up in the early morning of the school day to the smell of bacon, sausage and eggs cooking on the hobs of their dingy little stove, Flo still didn't properly apologise for her words- well, _verbally_. Once Fauna's eyes groggily glanced over the large array of food on the table, she knew her vegan roommate was only cooking her meat and eggs as a way of apology. Fawn's version of 'cooking' was nothing beyond putting fast food in the microwave or oven, then waiting for it to warm up.

 

Fawn leapt off the bed- shaking the entire caravan in the process- to give Flo a hug from behind. " _Ahh_ , you haven't made a full English breakfast in ages!" She exclaimed, before leaning on her tiptoes to give Flo a quick peck on her pale cheek. Flo flinched away from the contact.

 

"Yeah, yeah, will ya get off me? You're gonna make me drop the eggs on the floor and I spent 3 hours yesterday washing that god-awful mess of a carpet." Flo complained, juggling the pan in one hand and an egg on the end of a spatula in the other.

 

Fawn tilted her head slightly, a baffled expression crossing her face. Fawn always ended up looking like a confused puppy when she made this expression. "Yesterday? What do you mean, we went straight to sleep yesterday, right?"

 

Flo sighed, motioning for Fawn to sit on the couch and start eating the food already plated up. Fawn happily obliged, making a startling transformation into a starving hog at a trough. Flo couldn't blame her; Fawn had just slept off her jetlag for an entire day. Fried eggs, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, toast, and tomatoes were shovelled down her throat one after the other, without pause. Flo was unsure if Fawn was even taking mouthfuls of air in-between the mouthfuls of food. Refraining from throwing up at the sight of Fawm devouring huge chunks of meat she'd just drowned in ketchup, Flo sat down to _calmly_ eat her stack of oatmeal waffles and blueberry yogurt. She also had a big pot of black coffee by her side- Fawn turned her nose up to the bitter stuff, but Flo could never function on a morning without it. In-between bites, Flora explained how much of a 'lazy son of a bitch' Fawn was. The starving girl was so preoccupied with her meal, she only half-listened to Flo. Fawn only became fully attentive when the conversation turned to what the town was like.

 

"-This 'Mystic Falls' place is tiny, Fawn, it's only a ten minute walk into town from here. The nearest bus stop, even with all the stops, got me from one side of town to the other in only forty minutes... _forty!"_ Flo scoffed, waving her fork around to emphasise the scale of the place. "I think it's good this place is so small and off the radar, you know, surrounded by all these woods and shit, gives us our privacy to let out our... _urges_ …but the size of this town also means that if you go too far and any bodies show up, it's gonna be a big deal." Flo paused to give a long, hard stare.

 

Fawn froze, a guilty expression flashing across her face, before slowly putting down her knife and fork. She peeked up at Flora through the veil of her lashes, sheepish. Ketchup, crumbs and god knows what else were smeared over her round cheeks. Flo silently tossed a napkin at her.

 

"I, I…I know, man, I _know_." Fawn mumbled, now staring particularly hard at her glass of half-drunk orange juice. Fawn begun to fidget with the jewelled pendant hanging from her black choker nervously, Flo practically seeing the gears in her little head turning. Fawn couldn't _quite_ figure out how to say what she wanted to. Still, she tried her best: "…Just because I can't control my powers as well as you, a-and just because mast- _**he**_ has a stronger hold on me than you, shouldn't mean I have an excuse to mess up all the work you do to let us live a normal life, a-a life without them…you know I appreciate everything you do, and it's not like I WANT to mess up, it just happens sometimes and-" Fawn cut herself as her hands began to tremble. She moved as if to stand up and end the conversation there, but second-guessed herself at the last minute, turning to stare Flo right in the eyes instead. "-and even when I try my best, it, like, all just gets too much, you know? I just snap. Then my powers go all out of whack, and I start acting crazy again, I get so scared, scared of myself, scared of you, scared of _everything_ and- and it's just so hard I-I…" Flo could tell Fawn was fighting off tears at this point, so she reached for the napkin she'd thrown at her earlier and started wiping her face like a doting mother with her child. It had an immediate effect. Fawn's shoulders slumped as started to take deep, calming breaths. It was what she'd been taught to do all these years.

 

Flora shook her head slowly. "What have I told you? We don't aim for a 'normal' life, you know that's impossible- by human standards, at least- we aim for a _good_  one, a _happy_ one!"

 

Fawn nodded in agreement, smiling. It was a bright, hopeful little grin that made even grumpy old Flo's heart melt- well, melt was a bit too strong of a reaction. It didn't melt _per se_ , more like heated a little above room temperature. It was a great achievement for Flo's cold heart, nevertheless.

 

But all too soon did Fawn's expression turn to a mischievous one. "Hey, you know what would make my life a good one? If we could maybe try out for cheerleading togeth-"

 

Flo kicked her under the table, hard, before getting up to wash the dishes without another word. Fawn pouted and batted her eyelashes in a mock trial of flirty persuasion, before crumbling into a giggling mess when Flo asked in a flat tone if she was having a seizure. Fawn then moved onto jokingly ranting about how much the _ever so cheerful_ Flo would make a great captain and-

 

"Alright, shut up now, shit-stains, it's time for you to get into the shower. It's a 20-minute walk to the school and it's starting in 30." Flo abruptly announced. A smirk was planted between her cheeks. Flo did love the look of horror on Fauna's face as she clumsily scrambled up to jump in the shower, mumbling about how she didn't even know where Flo had dumped her clothes yesterday. "And in 3, 2, 1…"

 

"AHHHHHHHHH" Fawn shrieked, running straight back out of the bathroom, stark naked. She was dripping water all over the carpet.

 

Flo's smirk widened. "Oh, did I not tell you? I used up all the hot water this morning, while you were sleeping… _I'm so sorry._ "

 

She didn't sound sorry at all. Fawn got her back by going to hug Flo, pressing her petite body straight against Flo's clothes. Flo wasn't smirking then. Flo turned to reach for the frying pan she'd left in the sink just as Fauna gasped and ran straight back into the bathroom, locking the door with an eruption of laughter.

 

* * *

 

 

The majority of the walk to school was then filled with Fawn's obnoxious laughter at what had occurred while Flo stormed along by her side, a scowl on her face.

 

"Hey, lighten up, bro, I was only messing Just some banter, right?" Fawn said with a cheeky grin, her smile widening when Flo's emerald eyes glared back at her. When Fawn smiled that big, you could see her dimples peeking out.

 

"Unlike you, I actually _care_ about my appearance. I'd spent a shit-load more time picking out what to wear than _you,_ who just blindly stuck her hand in her draw for some old jeans and a top with bloody _Pikachu_ on it!" Flo retorted, refusing to let go of the fact she'd had to swap her damp top for another.

 

Fawn pouted, looking Fawn up and down as she pointed at her _Pokémon_ T shirt with pride. "Well, SORRY we all can't be some fashion-forward hippy with her elaborate flower crowns and long, flowy skirts- which, by the way, is very contradictory to your less-than-loving and _totally_ not carefree personality. I live for the simpler fashions!"

 

"What, simple like not even attempting to tame that rat nest of a hair of yours?" Flo retorted, reaching out to smack the back of her head. Fawn ran forward, avoiding her hand with a giggle. Her dark curls bounced as she pranced down the street, the entire right side of her head shaved. She'd done it a few months back to seem 'cool', and although Flo would never admit it, she did think Fawn looked much better after it was done. To Fawn's face however, she'd called it a 'stupid punk fad that needed to die'.

 

Fawn pulled a funny face at her, sticking out her tongue. "Besides, why are you so worried about how good you look- I mean, like, more than usual? It's not like my rebel friend- _GASP_ \- actually _cares_ about what the preppy kids at high school will think of her, right?"

 

Flo shook her head in disbelief. "Of course not, Fawn, never…"

 

"Good. Never change Flo, we need you miserable and sarcastic and physically abusive at all times!" Fawn yelled, pausing in the middle of the road they were crossing to dramatically point at Flo. Flo rolled her eyes and pushed Fawn forward with a smirk, a car beeping at the reckless kids to get off the road. Flo raised her middle finger to the driver, smirking. Fawn laughed, then turned back to Flo to add "...Because I'm actually really super very excited for this, you know- we haven't played high school student in, what, 30 years now? Past-me would never have thought I'd say that I'm looking forward to going to that hellhole called high school, but after we started living through all those minimum-wage jobs, I started to miss the odd mean teacher and piles of homework, you know? I mean, even a few years back when we joined those big, scary werecat gangs in London and had to fight all the time, I missed the simpler days of PE and math class…hell, even playing a lazy college student was a drag after a whi- oh, wait, I just realised something- college is what they call _university_ in America, right? I guess if we're pretending to be 17-year-olds again, going to high school here is technically like going to either six form or the first year of college in the good ol' UK, right? Well, I _think_ that's how it works? God, American school system's are confusing…"

 

"Well, you better get yourself together, Miss America, we're here now" Flo warned, cocking an amused eyebrow at her rambling friend.


	3. The New Kid

Students sluggishly drove towards the high school’s main entrance in a cluster of cliques. But even with each group deeply engrossed in their own meaningless blabber, once Fawn and Flo stepped foot on school grounds, it wasn’t long before heads turned their way. Phrases like ‘new kids’, ‘British babes’, and ‘they can’t be sisters- are they even related?’ began to circulate around in a buzz of gossip, the girls being stared at like the newest exhibits at a zoo.

 

Fawn, happy to become best friends with every person she made eye contact with, bounced across the grounds with a beaming grin. She even waved at a few people, not in a polite ‘oh, hi, yes, I notice you’ kind of way, but with big sweeping waves as if she were greeting a long-lost friend. Flo, on the other hand,  _despised_ being in an environment with too many eyes gawking at her, and so moved to saunter closer  _behind_  her bubbly friend. She looked straight forward with a bored expression, hoping her lack of acknowledgment of the public would revert some of the attention back to the little spark of energy that was Fawn. Flo’s attempts to hide herself didn’t work very well considering how much Flo dwarfed Fawn in both height and weight, but Fawn’s somewhat overwhelming excitement did seem to overshadow the attention her brooding companion got. Although Flo was the type of girl who took pride in the extensive amount of time she spent on picking her designer knockoff clothes and acting as if she was the  _Picasso_  of the make-up artist world…she could become quite shy when _too_  much attention was placed on her.

 

Once they’d entered the school building and finished what could only be described as their ‘red carpet moment’ (at least by high school standards), Flo immediately tugged on the back of Fawn’s leather jacket to stop her from aimlessly wandering off.

 

“Slow your roll, we need to hand the office the last copies of the forges or else we won’t be admitted as students here” Flo whispered after Fawn looked back at her with a puzzled gaze. Fawn’s mouth formed a small ‘O’.

 

“Oh, right…we don’t even know what classes we’re in! We need a map off ‘em and locker numbers and…and stuff!” Fawn exclaimed, turning to aimlessly run off down the opposite direction from before. Flo sighed and grabbed her jacket collar again, pulling back sharper than before.

 

“Look, I know you’re excited, but can you please just  _calm your tits_  for one minute- you don’t even know where the damn office is!” Flo hissed in her ear. Fawn shrugged.

 

“I’m sorry okay, I’m just too hyped! I’ll calm down when we have some boring history class or something, that’s the only downside to this, you know, ‘school’ thing…” Fawn’s chipper tone trailed off as she moved to wrap an arm around Flo’s waist (she couldn’t reach her shoulders). She then motioned with her head for Flo to survey the corridor. “Look, Flo, everything the light touches is our kingdom. A student’s time as ruler of high school rises and falls like the sun. One day, the sun will set on those popular bitches' time here, and will rise with you as the  _new_ popular bitch.” Fawn spoke in a deep, wise tone, her free arm none-too-subtly pointing at a girl leaning against a set of lockers and talking to a boy in a football jacket. The girl was coyly playing with the strands of her blonde hair, laughing at some unspoken joke between her and the smirking jock. Flo cocked a questioning eyebrow at Fawn, removing Fawn’s arm from her waist with a sneer.

 

“ _Lion King_ , seriously?” Flo said, before smacking at Fawn’s still pointing arm. “And for god’s sake, stop pointing so  _obviously!_  God, you’re embarrassing…”

 

Fawn winked, embarrassing people her favourite game, before forcefully linking arms with Flo, “Come on, let’s be sociable and go ask those girls over there where the office is.” And before Flo could protest about the unwanted contact and socialising, Fawn was already dragging Flo towards the girls with surprising determination. Fawn had specifically chosen the trio of girls standing by their lockers based on looks alone, her motives for making new friends always to surround herself with cute girls so she could, as she would say, ‘bask in the hot rays of their feminine beauty’…whether these cute girls were straight or not being a matter she never thought to consider. By the time Flo had finally untangled their linked limbs, Fawn had loudly announced her presence, shouting and waving her arm like a madman. It was too late to turn back and pretend like they didn’t want to talk to them. Flo was already cringing at the thought of what embarrassing thing her friend was going to do next. Fawn  _always_  had to cause a scene in one way or another. Thankfully, for Flo at least, one of the girls had already left the group before Fawn had bounded across the corridor to them. It had been the blonde one.  _Damn_   _it_ , Fawn thought. She did love blondes.  

 

“Hey girls! I’m Fauna and this is Flora- but they’re really stupid names so just call us Fawn and Flo, okay?” Fawn announced with a smirk. A bashful Flo nodded her head briefly in acknowledgment before subtly grabbing onto the bottom of Fawn’s jacket to prevent her getting uncomfortably close to the girls' faces. Fawn was known to unthinkingly do that with strangers.

 

“Oh…well hi, I’m Bonnie, and this is Elena…” One of the girls said, a hint of confusion in her tone. She’d only spoken after a brief pause of surprise at the fact two strangers had just waltzed into the middle of their conversation.

 

“Sorry to interrupt, we’re new and just wanted to know where the office was- we kinda got lost” Fawn explained with a small laugh, her eyes glimmering as they glanced over Bonnie’s heart-shaped face. She was a sucker for olive green eyes, and Bonnie had two, large, almond-shaped ones. Flo rolled her eyes, already knowing the ‘look’ Fawn had. Flo never knew someone who could suddenly crush, hard and fast, on every person she laid eyes on quite like Fawn.

 

Bonnie, meanwhile, suddenly recognised the ‘weird’ accent Fawn had. “Oh, right, we’ve heard of you- the new British kids in our year, right? We’d all heard about it before we broke up for the summer. Well the office is just up here- it’s on the way to class, so you can walk with us and we’ll show you, if you’d li-”

 

“-Yes, thank you!” Fawn squealed, not even letting Bonnie finish her sentence before she launched into a rambling explanation of how much she loved the jewellery Bonnie had on. Bonnie seemed taken aback at first, exchanging a worried look with her friend Elena, who just smiled at her encouragingly. Bonnie eventually shook her head with a baffled look, before shrugging and beginning to walk side-by-side with Fawn. Bonnie started complimenting her back, saying how much she loved the fact Fawn had natural hair, and that she could never go through all the effort of doing that, so she just straightened hers…

 

“I’m sorry, really I am. She gets so excited to meet new people, she’s like a puppy sometimes- I swear one day I’m gonna have to muzzle her.” Flo weakly joked, sending an apologetic look at Elena, who seemed to have been left behind just as Flo had. Elena snapped out of whatever she was in deep thought about, letting out a small, timid smile. It perfectly matched the one Flo had.

 

 

“Well, we better go catch them, you need to get to the office too.” Elena eventually replied, a far-off look still on her face. Elena’s mind was clearly somewhere miles away. She walked beside Flo in comfortable silence, still some distance between them. Each girl hid their face with the same, shoulder length brown hair they both possessed. This was unlike Fawn and Bonnie, who were walking side-by-side, shoulders bumping, and giggling at some joke the other had made.

 

When all too soon they’d reached the office, there was someone already talking to the administrator. It was another new student. A  _male_ student.

 

“-Hold up, who’s this?” Bonnie paused, staring at the boy with eager eyes.

 

“All I see is back.” Elena said, dubious about the excited tone of Bonnie’s voice.

 

“Yeah, a  _hot_  back!” Bonnie retorted.

 

“Who cares about his back? It’s only his dick size you really need to care about!” Fawn blurted out, a little too loudly in everyone’s opinion. They got a few alarmed glances from passing students. Flo was also sure, even with the general background noise of the corridor, that the stranger in question could’ve easily heard Fawn’s voice. Flo smacked Fawn on the back of the head, hissing at her to quiet down. Fawn just threw her head back and let out a roar of laughter, her short curls bouncing. She had to lean on Bonnie for support, her boisterous laughter affecting her whole body- including how well her legs functioned.

 

“…Besides, he wears shades indoors, that’s a trashy thing fuckboys who send you unwanted  _dick pics_  would do!” Flo bluntly stated, grabbing Fawn’s jacket and peeling the clingy girl from a surprised Bonnie.

 

Bonnie and Elena glanced at each other with wide, bewildered eyes, before bursting into a fit of giggles at the two strange girls' interactions. Flo quietly groaned with embarrassment for saying something so crude in front of strangers, a faint red coating her cheeks.

 

Bonnie then began listing off an entire backstory for the stranger- he was from Seattle and played the guitar, apparently- and Elena immediately interjected that Bonnie was taking this ‘psychic thing’ too far. At Fawn’s excited look, Bonnie parroted (with a bashful gaze) the same explanation she’d given Elena earlier about how she thought she was psychic…before quickly adding that it was just a joke!

 

Fawn held out her palms dejectedly, her lower lip jutting out sadly. “Aww, just a joke? I was just about to ask you for a palm reading!”

 

Bonnie laughed sheepishly, still embarrassed at having to admit it, but glad of Fawn’s reaction not being a negative one. Then Bonnie and Fawn’s attention turned back to the stranger still at the office, nothing known about his looks other than the back of his short, dark blonde hair. But in the middle of Bonnie and Fawn impatiently waiting for the stranger to turn around, Elena abruptly left, stating she’d be back in a minute. Bonnie and Fawn barely acknowledged her disappearance, too preoccupied in deciding if the new guy was hot or not in a series of heated whispers. Flo, however, had noticed the agitation in Elena’s tone. Flo also noticed that Elena had walked straight into the bathroom further up the corridor. The  _men’s_  bathroom. Flo couldn’t even begin to figure out why. Was this a normal thing for this Elena to do?

 

But before Flo could ponder on it for too long, the stranger finally finished his business at the office and turned in their direction to walk away. His deep-set eyes, forest green, were out on display now that his sunglasses were in his hand. Bonnie glanced at the young man in awe, her eyes hungrily following him as he walked up to her and turned right to go up the corridor. He’d done it without so much as a glance towards her. He had a deep brooding expression on his face, accentuated by his sharp, angular jawline. Flo didn’t care for his looks- she never did care for anyone’s but her own- and so she simply glanced at him with quiet disdain. Fawn certainly appreciated the view.

 

When the man walked past Fawn, he accidentally brushed past Fawn’s shoulders as he went. Fawn stiffened at the contact, her eyes flashing with deep-set shock as, just like Bonnie, her eyes followed him hungrily. The difference was her eyes were hooded in a considerably less subtle state of lust. Bonnie said a quick goodbye, her voice distant, as she dashed up the corridor to follow the guy.

 

Flo noticed him heading for the bathroom Elena had gone into, opening the door just as Elena was leaving it. She smiled in amusement as the two awkwardly bumped into each other, reminding herself to ask Elena what the whole male bathroom fiasco had been about when she got the chance. But right now, Flo was more concerned with Fawn, who was still fixated on the new stranger. Fawn was beginning to tremble. Flo raised an eyebrow. No one was hot enough to give someone chills, surely?

 

She punched Fawn’s arm, finally getting Fawn to tear her gaze away from the mysterious new student. “Come on now, you’re drooling…”

 

Fawn, startled, rubbed her lips with her sleeve immediately, stopping when Flo began to laugh at her. Coming to her senses, Fawn realised it had been a joke.

 

“Sorry, it’s just he’s…well, he’s a-”

 

Fawn was cut off by the scoff that left Flo’s frowning lips. “-What, ‘a walking sex god’, ‘sex on two legs’, ‘the prettiest darn boy in all the town’? I’ve heard all  _that_  before!”

 

Fawn shook her head, tugging on Flo’s sleeve for her to crouch. She whispered excitedly in her ear. “No, silly, I felt it when he bumped into me, my blood reacted, Flo…he’s a  _vampire_!”

 

Flo froze, her eyes flashing with understanding. Abruptly straightening, she grabbed Fawn’s arm without a word and dragged her towards the bathroom- the  _female_ one. Fawn opened her mouth to say something but was cut off when Flo pressed a finger to Fawn’s mouth.

 

“ _Shhh_ , not now. We need to deal with this before we register.” Flo spoke with conviction. “Oh god, first a witch, and now a vampire, both on the first day? Of course, because god forbid a damn changeling’s ability to attract every kind of supernatural creature to 'em like a moth to a flame wasn’t the most annoying power we own an-”

 

“Wait, witch, what do you mean? Who’s a witch? You felt a witch in the school- did your blood react to their magic?” Fawn suddenly perked up, glancing around as if someone was just casually flying around on a broom. Flo sighed impatiently, checking that the bathroom was empty before shoving Fawn into a cubicle and joining her inside. She locked the door.

 

“The witch isn’t a problem; her powers haven’t been activated yet. That Bonnie girl, she’s nothing more than a  _witchling_  still in her human stage. It’s probably why she thinks she’s physic, her powers are starting to seep out. I felt my blood react to it, but it was slight, less than the prick of a mosquito bite. Someone like you, so inexperienced with witch powers, wouldn’t have been able to feel such a miniscule spark of magic…b-but anyway, that’s not the main concern here, the  _vampire_  is!” Flo cried out, shaking her head as if thoughts of the witch would just fall right out of her ears. Flo grabbed Fawn’s shoulders. Her fingers dug into Fawn’s skin with unknown strength, Fawn shifting uncomfortably at the sensation. Flo’s eyes stared deeply into Fawn's, the seriousness of her gaze compelling Fawn to ignore the discomfort and give Flo her full attention.

 

“Are you sure you’re interpreting your blood’s reaction right- is it definitely a vampire?” Flo carefully asked, her gaze unwavering. Fawn had made this mistake before. “Fawn…you get a lot- and I mean,  _a lot_ \- of species mixed up.”

 

Fawn looked away, abashed. Getting her species identification wrong had led to some pretty big problems over the years. But even as she glanced away bashfully, she still spoke with a surprising level of stubbornness.

 

“No, I’m definitely sure.” Fawn glanced at Flo, who silently urged her to continue. “It happened like it always does for us. My blood changed to that of the creature my body was trying to identify- in this case, the new student- and then I started to get their symptoms: my body felt really cold and stiff for a moment, and my top gum was  _aching_  like you feel as a teething child- and then, suddenly, that’s when I felt it, the  _hunger!_ Oh man, it gnawed at my insides like I hadn’t eaten for weeks, I felt so empty, Flo, and, and so  _cold_  inside. I just needed something,  _anything_  to warm me and then…then I got so many smells of all the students, some of them smelled so  _sweet_ , sweeter than any perfume they could wear…that’s when I heard their heartbeats, their pulse, beating and beating, calling to me, beckoning me towards their necks, their necks were just so damn attractive all of a sudd-”

 

“- _FAWN!_ ” Flo yelled, snapping Fawn out of whatever state she’d been in. Fawn came around, blinking rapidly. It was like she’d been seeing under a haze of red, and now, her vision was clear again. She looked down at Flo and gasped, seeing that she’d grabbed Flo’s shoulders and pushed her to the floor. Fawn had pinned her against the stall wall with so much strength she’d bent it slightly, Fawn straddling Flo’s lap with her face mere inches from Flo’s neck. Flo could feel her heavy breaths, unusually cold, against her skin. Fawn immediately let go, scrambling off Flo’s body and holding out her hand to help Flo stand up again, a flurry of apologies escaping her mouth. Flo wasn’t outwardly scared, her face calm and detached, but inwardly her heart had beat against her chest with heavy thuds when she saw the bloodlust in Fawn’s gaze.

 

“Alright, I think it’s safe to say that with a change like that...you’re right, he's a vampire.” Flo admitted, breathless.

 

The bell for class rung.


	4. Graveyard Gathering

A warm, amber hue was beginning to filter through the light blue sky. The once pleasant breeze was quickly changing into a bitter chill reserved only for the night. Along a dusky, unpaved road near the outskirts of town, walked Fawn and Flo side-by-side. They were coming back from school.

 

“You can’t tell him” Flo repeated for the millionth time, agitation lacing her tone. Her head was down as her eyes fixed onto the smartphone in her hand. She was playing _Candy Crush_.  “You only want to tell him what we are so you can get ‘closer’ to him, ‘bond’ over the feeling of insatiable bloodlust and share tales that perfectly exhibit the pains of your ‘tortured, immortal souls’…” She let out a shiver of disgust as she trailed off, a condescending glare aimed at a pouting Fawn. Flo always hated the overbearingly obnoxious self-loathing creatures with immortality tended to possess. Then she turned away, back to her phone, and added with a sneer- “…then, when that’s all said and done, you’ll try to _fuck_ away his pain like the horny bitch you are!”

 

Fawn gasped loudly, hand clutching her chest as she stumbled back in shock. It was something only seen in the most pathetic, low-budget, cheesy soap dramas. “I’m not some emotional 14-year-old going through her emo phase- I don’t do that! Well…I mean, I don’t do that _every_ time…” She muttered, indignantly, turning her nose up at Flo to glance to the sky. A pained expression replaced Fawn’s offended one. Fawn was trying to look like she was crying, but Flo pointed out in a flat tone that the drama queen looked more like she was severely constipated. “Ack, thy cannot taketh this bitchiness no more- perhaps I should just end thee right now, but alas, thou sharp tongue wounds me so!” Then she flopped her hand across her forehead and sighed wistfully, woozily stumbling into Flo’s side. When Flo slammed her shoulder, the one Fawn leant on, back into Fawn’s arm with the strength of a professional rugby player, Fawn ran forward with a weak moan, clutching her bruised limb to her chest all the while.

 

Flo let out a cackle. “What’s with all the theatrics anyway- it’s not like I’m lying, huh, slut?”

 

Fawn turned around in an instant, fierce determination blazing in her eyes. Walking backwards, she flicked her hair back and pointed a finger at Flo with a sassy air. Of course, she used the arm Flo hadn’t just injured. “I prefer to think it more as embracing the many pleasures of the world, including the ones of another’s body on mine. Besides, dude, you know it’s not like that. He’s not even my type-” Fawn looked away guiltily when Flo crossed her arms and flashed her an ‘are you serious?’ look. Fawn was being delusional again. “Okay, _every_ vampire’s my type- but you know him and me got our eyes set somewhere else…. it’s just, you know, he doesn’t seem like a bad vampire, you know, we could be good mates and-”

 

“-You already know that the longer you spend time with another supernatural creature, and _especially_ the closer you bond with them, the longer periods of time your blood will stay changed. I do not need a feisty fanged Fawn running around right now…” Flo cut herself off to let out a snort of amusement as Fawn stumbled over her own feet and became dangerously close to falling headfirst into one of the thorny bushes bordering the road. She’d gotten a little too overconfident in her ability to walk backwards. “…you _know_ a vampire’s bloodlust is your biggest weakness. I mean, for god’s sake, you got your panties a little wet at the sight of him and the next minute you were in the bathroom jumping me for a quick bite!”

 

Fawn turned around to walk beside Flo again, sheepishly scratching the back of her head. “That was just from surprise at feeling that kind of power after _soooo_ long…I felt perfectly fine for the rest of the day, even in the classes where I sat right behind the guy!” Her tone became defensive towards the end as she kicked up the dust on the road, frustrated.

 

Flo sucked her teeth, irritated, before seeing the miserable look on Fawn’s face out of the corner of her eye. She groaned softly, her expression softening slightly. She was getting way too soft on Fawn, Flo knew it, and yet, she still couldn’t stop herself from trying to console her. She slipped her phone back into her handbag. “For god’s sake, Fawn, I’m not saying you can _never_ hang out with him, or even that you can’t tell him what we are, I’m just saying we need to scope it out a little and wait to see if any bodies show up in town…if he’s keeping his tracks clean, and he seems like a genuinely nice bloke, _then_ we can consider letting him know- but I’m not about to use his chiselled jaw as a bloody good reason to tell him about our existence! Changelings are rare and unheard of for a reason!”

 

Fawn perked up instantly, pumping her fists in the air with a triumphant _whoop_. Flo swung her handbag into Fawn’s back, narrowing her eyes as she hissed at her to listen properly and not just to the _first half_ of her sentence!

 

“Come on, it’ll totally make his day!” Fawn whined, playfully bumping into Flo’s side with her rear end. Flo walked faster, refusing to walk beside her. “I bet even if he’s lived 1,000 years, he won’t have met girls like us. Most immortal creatures we tell never have. Plus, no amount of super-duper vampy senses can help him distinguish us from humans, so I can just imagine the priceless look on his face when we spill the beans.” Fawn giggled as she imagined the scenario in-depth. Then, once the fantasy was over, Fawn sped up to wrap her scrawny arms around one of Flo’s, pressing her body against her fondly. “Besides, you were _totally_ staring at him all the way through history class- I saw you!”

 

Flo bristled at the closeness, but didn’t move to push Fawn off. Instead, her free hand moved to gently rub her temples. She was getting a migraine. “Yes, dumbass, I _was_ staring at him, but only because he was staring at Elena- and no, I’m not jealous, don’t even say it.” Fawn’s open mouth slowly closed, lips curving up into a sheepish grin. “By the way he kept smiling at her with that goo-goo-eyed stare of his, I think it’s safe to say he fancies her- which means that if he really is a big bad vampire, he’s going to compel her and suck her dry…if he doesn’t, then we know he’s safe. So, let’s just wait and see if Elena shows up dead or compelled at some point and we’ll work from there.”

 

“Geez, you’re so insensitive- Elena is Bonnie’s near and dear friend! I can’t have Bonnie upset over her death…” Fawn said in a chipper tone that contradicted her morbid words completely. Flo scoffed, already knowing by Fawn’s tone alone that Fawn didn’t care about Elena’s life any more than she did. Fawn just didn’t want her new crush to mope around in grief while she messed around attempting to woo the clueless girl.

 

Fawn rested her head on Flo’s shoulder, sighing contently. “I mean, Bonnie’s so cute, isn’t she? She’s short, just like me, the perfect height to match mine, even. Then that laugh, oh, that laugh…” Fawn’s eyes were glazing over with delusions of the unrealistic relationship that could form between her and Bonnie. Most of them involved a bedroom. She only stopped daydreaming when she looked up to see the death glare Flo was giving her. “What?”

 

Flo let out a humourless chuckle. “No, nothing, you carry on with your grand delusions of hooking up with a straight girl, I’ll just watch to see it all inevitably crush your frail, gay heart…you do this to yourself every time you make a new friend, and honestly, it’s just laughable at this point.”

 

“Hey, you never know- don’t knock it 'till you try it is still a valid phrase in this scenario, right? Besides, maybe she just needs a little encour- hey, speak of the devil, is that the vampire up there?” Fawn abruptly halted, causing the still moving Flo to be yanked back. Flo cursed, pushing Fawn away from her. She opened her mouth to insult Fawn, only for Fawn to wordlessly point further up the road. A mischievous glint was in her eye. Flo held her tongue and begrudgingly followed her finger’s direction up to the gates of the town cemetery.

 

They were using it as a shortcut home, the cemetery being right next to the woods their caravan was outside of. The vampire had just slipped through the gates. Flo turned to Fawn to see her hands held together in prayer, her eyes the perfect size and colour to gaze at Flo with the greatest puppy-dog eyes the world may ever know. She was bouncing on the tips of her feet in anticipation. Flo smacked Fawn on the back of the head for even attempting to use the stupid look to persuade her, but then clicked her tongue and reluctantly allowed her to go talk to the vampire anyway.

 

“I’ll be waiting here: keep it brief, don’t be weird and do not under _any_ circumstances mention you aren’t human or I swear to god, I’m locking you out of the caravan and the wolves can eat you.” Flo sternly warned, crossing her arms. Fawn squealed. She launched herself at Flo to give her a bone-crushing hug, to which Flo groaned with displeasure. Then Fawn ran ahead to catch the vampire before she lost him in the maze of headstones. Flo, left behind, sighed deeply. She wondered why she let herself be wrapped around Fawn’s pinkie. It was no surprise why Fawn acted so spoilt when she always seemed to get her way in the end…

  

* * *

 

 

“HEY, YOU!” Fawn called out, the vampire in the distance jumping in surprise before hesitantly turning around to pinpoint the owner of the voice. He was so preoccupied in his search amongst the graves even his inhuman hearing didn’t warn him of Fawn’s booming call. She bounded towards him, having moved at such speed to catch up to him that by the time she tried to halt, she nearly barrelled right into the poor guy. “You’re the other new kid, right?” She said, gasping for breath. Her chest was heaving.

 

“Erm, yes, I’m Stefan, and you’re…Flora, or, ah, Flo, right?” He glanced at her with a bemused smile. He was unsure of the reason for her urgency.

 

She shook her head slowly, a horrified expression on her face. “Oh my gosh, how DARE you forget my name- Flo is the other one, I’m _Fawn_ \- you know, like the baby deer, _Bambi_ and shit!”

 

Stefan flashed a winning smile her way, his straight teeth on display, apologising for the mix up. Fawn shrugged, cheerfully blurting out that his smile was apology enough. She never did seem to get embarrassed by the sorts of things she admitted to strangers. Stefan, however, paused for a moment, taken aback at how forward she was. Then, he smiled again, showing more (unnoticeable to Fawn) unease than before.

 

“So, what brings you here? Do you have family here, perhaps? I know you’re obviously not from around here, but I don’t know if you have American family in town, maybe?” Stefan asked, still trying to figure out why Fawn had so urgently called out for him. He clearly wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries, his eyes scanning the environment for whatever- or whoever- he had been looking for before Fawn had come.

 

“Hmm? Oh, no, me and Flo just walk across here to get home- it’s just outside of the woods by the cemetery, ya see. It’s our… _uncle’s_ holiday caravan. He lives in a house in the next town on, but insisted we experience a small-town life and so made us set up here. Since he travels all over the country for his work, we don’t expect to see him much…” She finished with a beaming smile, inwardly proud of how smoothly she executed the lie Flo had told her to tell people.

 

Flo had said that if they were to play teenagers moving from another country, they had to have a guardian of some sort that would accommodate them…though, outside of legal documents, this guardian in question would never be expected to actually show up. Fawn then moved to quickly change the subject, hoping to prevent him asking too many questions about her story. She always left filling in any plot holes in their cover story to Flo. Fawn was known to get confused and mix up the lies, or worse, tell a strange, elaborate lie that no one over the age of 6 would believe. Her efforts would have been in vain anyway, since Stefan was clearly (but again, not to Fawn) becoming antsy to leave her presence. He had barely even paid attention to what she was saying. “It’s pretty spooky, you know, living right by here. I’m sure if I ever do see a ghost or two wandering around at night, however, I’ll probably just wave hi and invite them in for a chit-chat. I bet the really old ones have the _best_ stories!” Fawn joked, Stephan no longer staring at the clock-face on his wrist-watch and turning to her. He chuckled as well. He vaguely mentioned he was living in an old boarding house with his uncle, so he also understood the fear of ghosts suddenly showing up. “Oh, really? Glad you understand! To be honest, I just saw you in front of us and thought I’d catch up to you to give a quick hello- newbies gotta look out for each other, right?”

 

Stefan nodded his head in agreement. He was smiling much more genuinely this time, and not just out of mere politeness. Then Fawn gasped and eagerly reached for his hand with the speed of a striking snake.

 

“Woah, dude, that’s some sick rock!” Her tone was one of awe.

 

Stefan immediately dodged her move, turning to his side. The beaming smile on Fawn’s face wavered. A hasty apology left Fawn’s lips as her hands were quickly pulled back to hang limply by her sides. Her tone was just as downbeat as her crestfallen expression. Stefan, surprised by how quickly she’d jumped from one extreme on the emotion scale to the other, cleared his throat and apologised back, slightly flustered.

 

Fawn shrugged, nervously glancing away. “Ah, no, it’s my fault, Flo tells me I can be obnoxious and intrusive and pushy when I get too excited...I just really loved the stone, that’s all. It’s one of those, erm, what do you call 'em… _AquaMarine_ s? No, no, Flo’s told me this before…oh, right, Lapis! It’s a Lapis Lazuli!”

 

Stefan’s left hand began to gently twiddle the large ring on his middle finger from side to side. It was silver, with the Lapis residing in its centre and covered by an ‘S’ design. He smiled warmly as he glanced at it. “It’s okay, I’m glad you like it. It’s a family ring. Kinda stuck with it- it’s weird, huh?”

 

Fawn shook her head like a wet dog. “No way, it’s super pretty!” Then a secretive smirk Stefan couldn’t quite figure out spread across her cheeks. “I bet something like that is _really_ important to you, huh? No wonder you acted so protective of it!”

 

Stefan’s eyes brightened, staring back at the amiable Fawn with amusement. Then his head immediately turned to his left, before he cocked it to the side. He was listening to something Fawn didn’t have the range to hear. Fawn's nose and brow crinkled as she dove into a deep concentration. Attempting to hone in her Changeling abilities and copy the sensitive hearing of the vampire in front of her, a smug little grin tugged at her lips when it began working. It was only for a brief few seconds, but she heard the panicked breath and quickened footsteps of a girl running across the other side of the graveyard. It took a few seconds for her realise it was Elena. Stefan suddenly apologised, Fawn jumping at the sound of his voice. Her eyes popped open only to see Stefan’s back as he ran off in the direction they’d both heard Elena in. Fawn called out, slightly perplexed by what she’d heard, and said that she’d see him at school then. He never replied. All too quickly did he disappear behind a thick haze of fog that was rapidly surrounding the area.

 

Fawn laughed. “Lapis Lazuli _ring_ , huh? What a fashion-forward way to protect yourself from the sun…way better than sunscreen, at least” She then turned on her heel and raced back to Flo, eager to tell her what she’d found out.

 

* * *

 

 

Both girls were back at the caravan. Flo huddled over a large black binder. Every inch of the exterior was either chipped, scratched or worn. The inside was excessively filled and so overflowing with loose papers and crudely drawn sketches. Written in beautiful cursive on the front was ‘Changeling Grimoire’, while a ‘Property of Fauna and Flora- do not touch, this diary is cursed and you will DIE if you do!’ was hastily scribbled underneath in a bright red gel pen. Some skull-and-crossbones were even doodled around the threat. Fawn had written the warning, while Flo had completed the title, more than fifty years ago. Within the binder laid important knowledge the Changelings had discovered, and thus recorded, about various creatures over the years.

 

“Alright, let’s see here…vampire, vampire…alright, now ‘L’, where’s the ‘L’s…” Flo mumbled under her breath while she scanned the pages within the ‘Vampire’ section of the binder. “Ah, here we are, ‘Uses of the Lapis Lazuli gemstone’…” But she was finding it hard to concentrate as Fawn danced around in what little space in the caravan she could find. She was shouting lyrics out at the top of her lungs, rock music blasting out of speakers she’d connected to her laptop. She was in nothing but her underwear; a bright red thong and no bra.

 

“I’M NOT A VAMPIRE BUT I FEEL LIKE ONE, SOMETIMES I SLEEP ALL DAY BECAUSE I HATE THE SUNLI-I-I-IGHT!” Fawn sang, sensually rolling her hips, slowly throwing her head side to side and raising her hands to the sky. Flo’s nostrils were flaring, her fingers twitching as she resisted the urge to just grab the laptop and throw it straight out of the window with a primal screech. But going ahead with the action would be out of character, and so instead she remained seated without a word. Flo had, after all, promised Fawn that she would let her play music while she got ready to go out. “MY HANDS ARE ALWAYS SHAKING, BODY’S ALWAYS ACHING AND THE DARK IS WHEN I FEED- WELL, I CAN LURE ANY WOMAN THAT I WANT TO IN MY BED WITH ME!”

 

The entire caravan started to pulse as Fawn turned up the music and began to dance harder, her bubble-butt grinding on every surface Fawn went past. Her exuberant ass-shaking was causing numerous loose papers to vibrate out of the book, making them slip to the floor before Flo could reach out and stop them. Flo’s patience broke.

 

With clenched teeth, she slammed her palms on the table and rose, screeching. “FAWN!” Fawn froze, mid-booty shake, staring wide-eyed as Flo’s upper lip curled up into a disdainful snarl. Fawn launched herself at the laptop sitting on the bottom bunk, stopping the music immediately. She turned around with a lopsided grin. Oops. Flo sighed, sinking back into her seat. “I know I said you could listen to your shitty music, but you’re taking the piss a bit.”

 

Fawn waved off her words with a nonchalant air. But when she turned the music back up, it was at a more reasonable level. “-And whiskey seems to be my holy water; mothers better lock your doors and hide your daughters…” She sang along quieter, tapping her foot and bobbing her head from side to side.

 

Flo rolled her eyes at the sight, before glancing back down to the pages of her book with an irritated _tsk_ escaping her lips. “Come on, do you really have time for this big, naked sing-and-dance number? Didn’t your new girlfriend say to meet her at that back to school party like half an hour ago?”

 

Fawn laughed, one hand on her hip while the other pointed the end of a ‘microphone’ (hairbrush) towards Flo's scowling face. “She’s not my girlfriend, geez! I'm going soon, anyway. I just, like, I don’t know, wanna get _white-girl-drunk_ , tonight. Like, fully wasted on shots and tequila, you know?”

 

Fawn moved to put on a crop top and ripped skinny jeans. The top had a zombie on the front, saying ‘I want _booooze_!’. It made Flo groan with distaste, sounding almost like the undead herself.

 

“Well, good luck trying to get the hard stuff at some high school party, in a country where 18 is not the legal age of consumption…but 21 is. You’ll be getting wasted on beer, most likely. Or, maybe you'll get lucky, and some kid feeling particularly rebellious stole some of the good stuff from _Daddy's liquor cabinet_.” Flo reminded her, abandoning the book to get up and rummage for something in her drawer.

 

Fawn let out a mischievous chuckle. “Oh, yeah, I already stocked myself up well to get around that dreary fact- remember that gas station the taxi stopped at just before we hit town? Well, while you went to the loo, I might’ve nipped into the shop for some alcohol and snuck it into my suitcase when you weren’t looking…I mean, you must already know, you were the one that emptied my suitcase, after all.”

 

Fawn sighed. “Yes, unfortunately, I do already know. But you’re a big girl now, almost 97 years old this year, so I’m not about to be the one to kill your buzz. The tequila's at the back of the cupboard- take a big swig of it before you go out.”

 

Fawn located the tequila faster than any trained hound could, unscrewing the lid and downing a large gulp of it just as suggested by Flo. Her mouth and throat were scorched by the fiery flames of the alcohol as it travelled down, a shiver of disgust creeping up her spine. Fawn let out a hoot of revulsion, her face contorting into a look of pure horror. Then, that devil-may-care expression returned to its rightful place on her face as she moved to pour a large portion of the alcohol into a water bottle. Jumping to her feet, she started belting out the words to the song again while she slipped into her boots. The bottle was now in the mini black backpack she was taking.

  
“I’M INSANE! WELL, I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONES, COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS, WHEN DID I BECOME SO COLD? FOR GOODNESS SAKE, WHERE IS MY SELF-CONTROL?”

 

Flo, finally finding what she was looking for, called out to Fawn. Fawn had just grabbed her leather jacket. “Wait, before you go, swap out your choker for this one.” With one hand on the door handle, Fawn turned to glance at Flo. Flo held up a thick black choker identical to the one Fawn already had on, the only difference being that this choker had a deep, celestial blue oval hanging from it instead of the clear one already on her neck. Fawn gasped, eyes lighting up in delight.

 

Fawn, now hopping impatiently from one foot to the other, turned around and signalled for Flo to put it on her neck. Flo walked up to her and obliged, not needing to push back her hair as Fawn’s curls didn’t even reach down to her neck.

 

As she swapped them, Flo explained the reason for the change. “If I got the spell right earlier, this Lapis Lazuli choker should help curb any vampire urges you may feel, and keep you from drunkenly popping out those fangs while you go get pissed. It’s not like you’ll need the gem to stop you burning in the sun at any rate- thank god you can’t copy that ability. Though I guess you do start getting those extreme sunburns, but buying you a hell of a lot of sunscreen is an easier fix than trying to complete a daylight ring spell, right?”

 

Once Flo had finished, Fawn looked down in admiration at the small gemstone, noticing the flecks of gold scattered amongst the blue. She turned to Flo and struck a pose; one hand behind her head and the other on her hip. Sticking out her chest and pouting her lips, Fawn asked Flo in a husky whisper how she looked. She looked like she was imitating a duck that had just broken its back.

 

Flo let out an unforgiving cackle. “You look like you’re trying to give the illusion your chest isn’t as flat as a washboard, and failing miserably at it. There’s a reason why you don’t own a single bra, Fawn.”

 

“Hey, flat-chested girls are superior to big-boobed bitches like you because you know how the saying goes- the flatter a girl’s chest, the closer you’ll be to her heart...plus, my ass makes up for it!” Fawn spoke defensively, but the smirk on her face revealed she wasn't actually angry at Flo's jab. She began to beat on her puffed-out chest proudly. It was similar to a silverback gorilla trying to assert its dominance.

 

“Okay, okay, if you say so. Now get out of here you crazy kid. I’ve still got more catching up to do about our vampire brethren. I don’t want any surprises coming from you while you try to make Stefan your new 'blood-sucking bestie'.” Flo said, pushing Fawn in the direction of the door.

 

“Roger that! Oh, and if I don’t make it home tonight, don’t wait up on me. You’ll know why…” Fawn spoke in a sing-song voice, wagging her eyebrows up and down suggestively. At Flo’s unimpressed glare, she leapt out the door with a giggle.

 

Flo moved to stand by the door-hole, the door Fawn had forgotten to close swinging lazily in the night breeze. She fondly watched Fawn run down the road. Flo was pleased that, for now at least, Fawn wasn’t focusing on the masters of their past. Plus, she appreciated Fawn was actively trying to find other people to annoy.

 

“If only I had the luxury to be so capricious about my worries…but I guess someone’s got to be the adult here.” Flo mumbled with a warm smile, before closing the door and moving to slam the laptop screen shut. The music cut off instantly. She quietly went back to the book, a yawn escaping her lips. She had the local newspaper from yesterday on the table, the title ‘BODIES FOUND MUTILATED BY ANIMAL’ on the front. Flo had a long night of investigating ahead of her.


	5. Party Problems

Fawn reached the party in record time, it literally being thrown in her backyard. She was practically shivering, her body overwhelmed by the feverish excitement that coursed through it. She’d dreamt about going to a real American high school party thrown out in the middle of the woods since she was an obsessive little tween spending hours hungrily consuming cliché, American teen dramas. In fact, she _still_ acted like an obsessive little tween who spent hours hungrily consuming cliché, American teen dramas.

 

The party’s location was better than Fawn had expected: a huge wooden gazebo in the centre of the action, where a few wooden tables stood inside. The seats for these tables were only large, empty beer barrels. These tables were mostly occupied by underage high schoolers, empty beer bottles clumsily scattered around their feet. Beside the gazebo was a giant fire pit, currently lit. The dancing flames, and the fairy lights strung across large oaks bordering the area, were the only sources of light. One particularly intoxicated guy was wildly dancing around the pit, dangerously close to the flames. He looked like he was imitating some sort of tribal ritual.

 

Fawn ignored the blasting music and the drunk dancers, slipping through crowds of bodies in search of people she recognised. It took a while, but she finally spotted Bonnie and Elena talking near a second, smaller, handmade firepit at the end of the party Fawn had entered from. She rushed to their side, managing to stumble over a horny couple that were heavily making out on the ground in the process. She didn’t even pause to see who she’d kicked.

 

She launched herself at Bonnie and Elena, wrapping one of her arms around each of them. “Hey, girls, looking pretty hot tonight!” She greeted, grinning widely.

 

“Oh, hey, Fawn. Is Flo not coming tonight?” Elena asked, unable to hide the disappointment in her tone. The two girls, both bashful in their way, found they enjoyed each other’s company quite a lot. They didn’t talk each other’s ears off about trivial things like the others did. Nor did they ever divulge anything about their personal lives. They instead formed a strangely close bond that consisted mostly of sitting in content silence while they watched their more outgoing friends interact. It was a bare-boned friendship, but pleasant to be a part of.

 

Fawn shook her head with a laugh. “Flo’s not the party type. Plus, she can’t handle her alcohol very well. Last Christmas, she had half a glass of wine and was already wasted- she got out a box of highlighters and started drawing on my face with them, explaining she was highlighting me because I was important.” They all laughed. “Oh, but don’t tell Flo I told you that, okay? She’ll _literally_ kill me.” Fawn winked, a finger over her lips, which were curved up into an infectious grin. “So, anyway, what were y'all talking ‘bout before I got here?”

 

“We were discussing how hot Stefan is. He has that novel-romance stare, you know, the one that pierces your very soul…right, Elena?” Bonnie said in a deep, narrator tone, as if actually reading from a romance novel, before glancing at Elena with a teasing smirk.

 

Fawn’s grin widened, turning to Elena with a similarly teasing expression. “Ah, yes, so true. And it seems to be Elena’s soul he’s piercing right now. Perhaps, soon enough, he’ll be piercing something else, and not with his eyes…”

 

“You guys, come on, stop it…” Elena complained, shrugging off Fawn’s arm and glancing away sheepishly. A blush spread across her cheeks as Bonnie and Fawn high-fived each other, sharing a knowing look. Then Bonnie asked where the man himself was, scanning the area.

 

“I don’t know, you’re the physic, _you_ tell us.” Elena teased back, offering Fawn a beer. Fawn shook her head, declining it, before opening her bag and taking out the water bottle from before.

 

“Just between us, this isn’t water.” Fawn whispered, then playfully elbowed Elena, a wicked smirk on her face. Bonnie and Elena raised their eyebrows at her, sceptical, but didn’t stop Fawn as she took a big gulp of it. Bonnie shook her head in disbelief.

 

“You’re crazy. But you know what? I like it!” Bonnie said with a giggle, knocking back the contents in her red paper cup as well. “Now let’s see about using my physic powers to find Stefan, eh?” She tossed the cup to the ground and cracked her knuckles. She began rolling her shoulders back. “Grams said I needed to concentrate, if I wanted to do it right…”

 

“But wait, you can’t do it without a crystal ball!” Elena joked, holding out the hand with the beer bottle Fawn had just rejected. “Ta da!”

 

Bonnie rolled her eyes, smiling, and reached out to take it. Once she’d wrapped her hand around the neck of the bottle, however, she froze. Her eyes widened, glazing over as her mouth slowly fell open. Bonnie’s face was a blank sheet for several seconds, then, she shook her head of the cobwebs and came back to her senses. Bonnie pulled her hand back as if she’d just been electrocuted, her gaze fixated on the bottle. She was disturbed by something. Fawn and Elena glanced at each other, concern reflecting in their gaze, before they turned back to Bonnie and simultaneously asked her what was wrong.

 

Bonnie rubbed her chin with furrowed brows. “It was weird. When I touched it, I had some sort of vision. I saw a crow, there was fog, and a man…” While Bonnie listed the things she’d seen, Elena seemed to be getting increasingly perturbed, as if the words meant something to her. Fawn glanced between them, the least troubled of the three. Flo had already explained to Fawn that Bonnie was a young witch beginning to discover her powers, so Fawn knew that the vision must’ve just been a part of that discovery. She did wish Flo had been there to witness Bonnie's minor freak-out herself, though. Witches, visions, spells and magic were Flo’s Changeling speciality, not Fawns. While a studious Flo spent hours holed up in her room, practising spells and memorising incantations, a carefree Fawn was always too busy running out back in the body of a wolf, or locking herself in the bathroom to stare in the mirror, waiting for her fangs to come in.

 

Bonnie resolved that she was just drunk, and that the vision was clearly nothing to worry about. Unconvinced, a troubled expression still shadowed Elena’s face. But before she could voice her troubles, Bonnie wandered off, saying in a distant voice that she needed a refill. Elena called out after her, but Bonnie trekked on without a glance behind.

 

“Should I go after her?” Fawn asked, staring after Bonnie anxiously. Fawn _really_ wished Flo was here now, sure Flo would know how to comfort the troubled witch. Elena shook her head.

 

“No, no, you don’t have to do that. Maybe I shou- Oh, hi.” Elena cut herself off as she turned around to see a guy standing behind her. Fawn jumped, unsure how long someone had been standing behind them. But when her eyes glanced over Stefan’s familiar face, they lit up in delight.

 

“Stefan, my main man, you made it! Looking pretty as always, though I expected some more effort- where’s the stilettos?” Fawn joked with a teasing grin, hitting Stefan’s chest with a laugh. Then she moved to swing her water bottle inches from his face. “Tequila? It’s the expensive stuff!” She asked in a sing-song voice.

 

“No thanks, Fawn. I’m good.” Stephan said, not tearing his attention away from Elena, even as the bottle lay directly in front of his field of vision. Fawn rolled her eyes, taking another swig. Then she patted Elena’s back with a resigned sigh. “Well, even someone as clueless as me knows when she’s being the unwanted third wheel- I’ll leave you two to catch up. Remember kids, always use protection!” She shouted the last sentence as she waltzed away. Elena glanced to the ground with red dusting her cheeks, while Stephan looked away from a red-faced Elena with a bashful chuckle. The last thing Fawn heard, before walking too far away, was Elena apologising for her comment. It made an uncontrollable giggle rip through Fawn’s body like a shiver.

 

After a good ten minutes of searching, Fawn managed to find Bonnie again. She was talking to a tall blonde girl with a sour expression. The girl was pale, the low lighting of the fairy lights worsening her complexion further. But even in bad lighting, the girl was still a pretty, slim woman. She had straight, shoulder length hair and teal eyes. Fawn jumped up and waved wildly with a yell, the girls glancing around them in confusion. Fawn laughed as she ran to their side.

 

“Hey, Bonnie, I see you found Caroline!” Fawn exclaimed, before tilting her head and glancing to Caroline curiously. “What’s with the sour face? It’s a party!” Caroline was the same blonde girl Fawn and Flo had narrowly missed meeting when they’d gone over to ask Bonnie and Elena where the office was on the first day of school. But, in the end, Caroline had joined Bonnie and Elena for lunch later that day, at a table where Flo and Fawn had also sat.

 

“I’m fine. I don’t know what you mean.” Caroline grumbled, before returning to staring off to her left. Her frown deepened. Fawn followed the irritated girl’s gaze, seeing a small wooden bridge used to cross a stream in the distance. Halfway across it was where Stefan and Elena stood, leaning over the wooden railing and talking about something in-depth. They weren’t taking their eyes off each other, the smiles on both of their faces illuminated by the fairy lights intricately entangled in the overhead beams. Oh.

 

“Yeah, they look like they’re gonna make a cute couple, huh?” Fawn said with a dreamy sigh, smiling like a proud mother seeing her daughter off on her first date. Caroline turned on her heel to send a glare at Fawn so piercing, Fawn shrank back into herself. “Sorry…I know you’re on the prowl for him too.”

 

Caroline stomped her foot like a tantrum child, groaning, before launching into a rant about how no matter what she did, Stefan wouldn’t take his eyes off his ‘precious’ Elena! Her voice was shrill, the rant escalating her already high-pitched voice to a grating level. She was very animated as she complained, her arms thrown around, for emphasis, a lot.

 

Bonnie shook her head at Fawn, disappointed. “Look what you’ve done, you’ve set her off again.” Fawn shrugged, flashing an apologetic look towards Bonnie. She haf never thought her comment would be taken like a personal insult. But Caroline seemed to be even more of a drama queen than Fawn, a feat thought previously impossible. Then, to make matters worse, someone else joined the group to moan about the budding romance.

 

It was one of the guys Fawn had seen walking around school in a football jacket. He was a jock. He was tall, with baby blue eyes and the same short, dark blonde hair as Stefan. He was just as handsome as Stefan too, the only difference between them being that the guy’s face was rounder, giving him a baby-face in comparison to Stefan’s more refined features. As the jock glanced sulkily at the couple, who were still on the bridge, Fawn could practically feel the desperation and longing oozing from him.

 

Bonnie explained to Fawn that the young man was Matt, and he was a childhood friend of them all, including Elena. She then added with a whisper that he was also Elena’s ex-boyfriend. Fawn nodded with intrigue, before loudly stating-

 

“Oh, I thought Matt was sulking because he wanted _Stefan_ as well, not Elena!”

 

Matt didn’t like Fawn very much after that.

 

 

A while later, the group began to disperse. Matt was first. He found his football teammates and gratefully wandered off with them. This was before Bonnie went on a search to find more alcohol and never returned. No one bothered to look for her. Caroline moved from ranting about Stefan’s lack of interest to a more positive note, instead explaining her flirting plan to Fawn in great detail. Fawn kept her mouth shut, obediently nodding at the right parts, as she didn’t have the heart to tell Caroline that her ‘genius’ plan would probably all be for nought- Stefan clearly liked Elena. Fawn finished her tequila, and began downing bottles of beer instead. She still wasn’t drunk. She was not a light drinker, despite her petite size. Caroline spotted that Stefan had briefly separated from Elena, and wasted no time in beginning her plan of attack. She bolted to his side. Her sharp eyes, filled with fiery determination, were staring him down. Fawn, knowing it was probably the amount of alcohol Caroline had consumed that was giving her such blind confidence, hastily followed behind. Caroline _was_ a light drinker.

 

By the time Fawn had caught up to Caroline, she was already trying to convince Stefan to come with her to see ‘the falls’. It was the town’s large waterfall located nearby, and the reason for the ‘falls’ in _Mystic Falls_.

 

“Caroline, you’re drunk.” Stephan observed, trying (and failing) to get past her. Caroline giggled (drunkenly), nodding her head in agreement. Stefan’s frown deepened. Fawn tugged on Caroline’s arm, trying to urge her out of Stefan’s way. It was just as effective as Stefan’s side-stepping attempts- as in, it wasn’t. Stefan sighed, before grabbing Caroline by the shoulders. He looked her right in the eye, his green eyes narrowed and intense. “Look, Caroline. You and me, it’s not gonna happen.” He said, his touch gentle, but his voice firm. Caroline’s seductive grin slid from her face, her jaw slack. She stared mutely at him. Her eyes slowly widened, mortified. Fawn felt second-hand embarrassment from witnessing the entire conversation. She froze in place, staring wide-eyed at the man, just as Caroline was. The already flimsy bridge between Stefan and Caroline burned down to ashes, right in front of Fawn’s eyes, Fawn almost sure she could hear sirens in the distance. Stefan squeezed Caroline’s arm lightly in reassurance, then moved her out of his way so he could carry on walking. “Nice to see you, Fawn.” were the last words he spoke before making a beeline for Elena.

 

“Well, he could’ve put you down a little gentler, Jesus Christ!” Fawn eventually muttered, still shell-shocked. Caroline kicked at the ground in a fit of anger, shrieking like a madwoman, before storming off in a huff. A few people spilt beer on themselves as she forcefully pushed her way through crowds of people. Fawn didn’t follow her. Caroline clearly needed some time to cool down. Instead, Fawn threw back her head, finishing the bottle of beer in her hand, then watched as Elena left Stephan to follow a young, drunk boy. He was stumbling out of sight into a cluster of trees. Fawn searched in her memory to see if she recognised the drunk boy, vaguely remembering a conversation with Elena about her having a younger brother. That had probably been him. He’d been acting out, according to Elena.

 

But no sooner had Fawn ambled over to Stefan, beginning to tease him about being such a lady’s man, did a scream of 'help!' suddenly rise out from behind the row of trees. A few seconds later, the drunk boy, Elena’s brother, burst out of the foliage, a thin girl in his arms. She was unconscious. It took a few seconds for the surrounding intoxicated teens to realise that something serious had taken place. But when Matt began yelling that his sister had been injured, pushing through the crowd beginning to form around the girl, news travelled fast. The music cut off, but the ensuing commotion of panicked yells and alarmed whispers was soon twice as loud as the music had been. The girl was laid across one of the outdoor picnic tables, one of Matt’s jock friends demanding people give the unconscious girl some room to breathe.

 

“Something bit her, she’s losing a lot of blood! This is really bad!” Elena explained in alarm, her face tense as she gingerly turned the girl’s head to the side to reveal two large, angry-looking, puncture wounds across her neck. Blood was pouring out of the wounds at a substantial rate, covering Elena’s hands and dripping down to stain the tabletop. Crimson was smeared across the injured girl’s white tank top.

 

Fawn gasped, gaping at the scene with her mouth wordlessly opening and closing. She was like a fish, gasping for air. Fawn shook her head in disbelief. “No, impossible. I mean, how, when, what? She can’t have been bitten, Stefan’s right here so who could’ve suc-” She cut herself off as she realised what she was about to say in earshot of Stefan, but she had no need for the caution. Stefan had disappeared into the crowd a few moments before she had began to speak, Fawn catching a glimpse of his head bobbing up and down as he pushed his way through the throng of people. He was soon out of sight. “Well, he _was_ here, at the time of the incident. And that’s when it matters most…”

 

Fawn took out her smartphone; her fingers trembled as she pressed on the name of the only person’s number she had stored in it- Flo. She was unsure what Flo would do now that it was confirmed another vampire was in town. This vampire wasn’t playing nice like Stefan was. Fawn listened to the dial tone, bouncing on the tips of her toes while waiting for Flo to pick up. She stared, mesmerised, at the blood carelessly dripping onto the dirt below. She bit her lip. Her gums were starting to ache.

 

* * *

 

 

Flo patiently listened to the rushed explanation of what had happened, Fawn mumbling or tripping over her words and having to repeat what she said numerous times before Flo could even semi-understand what Fawn was talking about. When Fawn was finished, Flo was silent for a long time after. She was weighing up their options. Flo glanced at the newspaper on her desk, about the supposed animal attack just outside of town, and sighed deeply.

 

“Okay, this is what we’re gonna do. You stay with the girls and make sure they aren’t too traumatised from seeing some spilt blood. Meanwhile, I’m gonna get to the bottom of this. Don’t expect me to be home when you get back, this might take all night.” Flo ordered, standing up to find her coat.

 

“Okay…what’re you gonna do though? I mean, you don’t even know who this vampire is and I can hel-”

 

Flo interjected, her voice laced with a stern edge. “-I said _, I’ll_ get to the bottom of this. Unlike you, I know how to handle something without making things ten times worse. You just go babysit the distressed humans and ensure they aren’t, I don't know, gonna have a breakdown or something…”

 

Fawn groaned, before dejectedly muttering ‘yes, ma’am’ and hanging up. Flo knew Fawn would be sulking now. But, she didn’t let it stop her plans, Flo immediately calling a taxi. With one hand holding the phone to her ear, the other was used to help slip her feet into a pair of pumps. 

 

“Yes, hello? I need a ride to the Salvatore Boarding House.”

 

* * *

 

 

She told the driver to drop her off in front of the gothic, wrought iron gates in front of the Salvatore grounds. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself by using the long, winding driveway up to the front of the house. When Flo glanced through the bars, she was impressed, but daunted, by the sheer size of the area. Hastily pressing a button on the wall beside the gate, the two sides of the gate slowly began to open, splitting the intricate, family crest in its centre in-half. Flo breathed in a huge, calming breath, before she trekked onwards. Cautiously walking down the driveway, her eyes remained vigilant for the first sign of trouble. It was deadly quiet in this area of town, it being just as remote as the where the caravan was. The only sound Flo could hear was her shoes crunching on the gravel beneath her. Various vines, roots and moss grew up the side of the faded red brick walls of the boarding house, curling around 3 rows of arched, glass windows going up the building. Flo raised an eyebrow at the architecture, amazed, but unwilling to squeal, gasp or gush endlessly as Fawn would’ve done, had she been there.

 

When she’d made it to the end of the driveway, Flo made sure to avoid the front door, heading straight to the back of the building instead. The back garden had much more shrubbery than the front, Flo sure that if she wasn’t closely sticking to the walls of the house, she could easily get lost in the maze of greenery. There was a distinct crunch under her shoes, different to the sound of gravel. Flo looked down to see what it was, jumping back when she saw that it was broken glass. She looked directly above her, and sure enough, one of the windows on the third story was broken. A large hole was now in the centre of the window, jagged glass teeth surrounding the space. Wind blew between the glass teeth, creating a whistling noise.

 

Someone had been thrown out of the window. If the person was human, there was no way they’d have survived the fall. Just as soon as the thought entered her mind, Flo heard someone groaning in pain. She looked to see a dark lump in the distance, trying to stand up. Flo sighed with relief, knowing who it was. It was Stefan. She walked up to him, Stefan not even noticing her until she stood over him and blacked out what little moonlight the night sky brought them. He froze in shock, Flo raising an eyebrow at the vampire’s bruised and battered appearance. His clothes were ragged, and his hair stuck out at odd angles.

 

“You look like crap. How long have you been lying there?” She bluntly stated, before holding out her hand to help him up. It took Stefan several moments to recognise her.

 

“…F-Flo? What, what…what are you doing here?” Stefan mumbled, finding a girl he’s never even talked to (and only heard of in passing via Fawn) being in his backyard at midnight a ludicrous thought. And, yet, there she was. Warily, he held out his hand, and Flo, after some effort, managed to pull him to his feet. He moved to let go of her arm, but Flo’s grip suddenly tightened, forcing Stefan to look at her in bewilderment. Flo stared back at him with conviction.

 

“Look, _Dracula_ , we need to talk. Like, right now!”

  

* * *

 

 

Fawn, Bonnie and Caroline all sat in a coffee shop in the middle of town. A large, half empty pot of coffee sat in the centre of the table, the contents consumed entirely by a still-drunk Caroline. Bonnie and Fawn had cups of tea in their hand. Caroline’s head was in her hands, a pitiful moan escaping her.

 

“Come on, keep drinking. I need you sober so I can get you home. So _I_ can go home.” Bonnie urged, amusement in her tone.

 

Caroline sniffled, looking up with bloodshot eyes. “Why didn’t he go for me?” Fawn froze, her mug inches away from her lips. Caroline was talking about Stefan. “How come the guys I want, never want me back?”

 

Bonnie shook her head, refusing to add fuel to the pity party about to take place. Fawn carefully put the mug back down on its coaster, glancing down to her lap. She felt an awkward conversation was about to take place.

 

“Come on Caroline, it’s just one guy. There’s plenty of cucumbers in the vegetable patch.” Fawn joked, hoping to cheer her up. It didn’t work.

 

“No, you’ve been here a week, okay, you don’t get it. I’m inappropriate, and I always say the wrong thing…but Elena, she always says the right thing. She doesn’t even try, it infuriates me!” She whined, slamming a hand on the table. “He just picks her, and she’s the always the one everyone picks, for _everything_. I try so hard, you know, and I’m _never_ the one.”

 

Fawn wrapped a comforting arm around Caroline. “No, I get it. Flo’s really hot, with her high cheekbones and sexy curves, she could easily be a plus-size model if she wanted to. Even though I’m way more friendly and social, most guys still go after the grumpy old fart and just wanna be my mate, which I don’t mind, usually…but, well, it’s such a wasted thing, you know, since she cares about no one’s appearance but her own. They never get _anywhere_ with her! Not only that, but she’s real smart too, and never messes up or says the wrong thing, like, _ever_. Meanwhile, I say dumb things and screw up all the time because I get too excited and pushy and clingy and overshare, like, _waaay_ too much. Then, she has to fix all my mistakes and it just makes me feel even more useless and dumb than before.”

 

Caroline looked at Fawn in surprise. Fawn looked back up, catching Caroline’s eye. A look of understanding passed between them. They both knew what it was like to be overshadowed by their friends.

 

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “Guys, they’re your friends, it’s not a competition.”

 

Caroline and Fawn turned to Bonnie, and exclaimed in eerie synchronization. “…Yeah, _it is!”_

Bonnie, unable to understand, shrugged and finished her tea quietly. When she reached the bottom of her cup, she got up to pay the bill, leaving Caroline and Fawn alone. With Bonnie no longer sitting across from them, they now could see a young man in a worn leather jacket. He was sitting at the table in front of them. He looked to be in his early twenties, with olive skin, high cheekbones and a sharp jawline. He was staring at them with intense, cobalt eyes, a devilish smile on his face. He acknowledged them with a subtle nod of his head, his short, tousled black hair bouncing slightly at the action. Caroline immediately smiled back, staring at him coyly. Fawn’s stare was sultry, her eyes partially hooded as shameless lust overtook her previously self-pitying expression. Fawn could feel her knee begin to bounce under the table.

 

But then, something within Fawn changed. It was her blood.

 

Her heart began to palpitate wildly, making her breaths turn shallow. A sharp, throbbing pain began in the back of her eyes. She couldn’t stop the change. Dark, almost black, veins began to appear under her eyes and partially down her cheek. Blood forcefully pumped through them. The sclera of her eyes began to dye themselves crimson. Her hands, placed on the table, trembled. Fawn, unable to control what was happening, immediately looked down. She blinked rapidly, rubbing her cheeks as she tried to prevent the transformation escalating. It quickly subsided. Her fully transformed face only lasted about 10 seconds: But for all those seconds, all Fawn had seen was red, all Fawn had heard was the throbbing pulse of the dozen people in the cafe. She heard the pulse of every person in the entire establishment, all except the man in front of her.

 

He didn't have one.

 

Caroline had been so captured by the handsome man, she never ever even noticed what had taken place mere inches from her side. Chest heaving, Fawn glanced back at the mysterious stranger to catch the surprise on his face. But that surprise soon transformed into a knowing smirk. Fawn glanced back down at the table, bashfully shrinking in her seat. He’d saw. Even worse, he _knew_.

 

This man was the vampire who’d attacked Matt’s sister. Fawn had felt his bloodlust. It was what had caused her blood- and her face- to change.

 

Fawn saw a taxi pull up outside the coffee shop, and a hasty plan was formed. She forced Caroline to tear her gaze from the vampire by grabbing her arm. Fawn dragged the reluctant girl towards the door, practically throwing her into the back seat of the taxi.

 

“Time to go home- see you at school!” Fawn told her, her smile tense. Caroline gazed back at her blankly, utterly perplexed. Fawn slammed the door shut and tapped on the roof of the car, the taxi speeding away before Caroline had even moved to put her seatbelt on. Fawn sighed with relief, until she turned to find three angry students. They were the ones who’d called the taxi. “Heh, drunk people, what’re ya gonna do?” She mumbled, smiling innocently. She ran back inside when they began cursing at her, one of them looking to turn the argument into a physical altercation. When Fawn entered the coffee shop, she immediately looked to the spot the vampire had been sitting in.

 

He was gone.

 


End file.
